It was Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 when the Buffalo Bills decided to make a rare in-season change by firing offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey. Dorsey has been the quarterbacks coach since 2019 and was eventually promoted to offensive coordinator going into the 2022 NFL season after Brian Daboll left to become the head coach of the New York Giants.
Dorsey was given the keys to a fast car with Josh Allen as his quarterback, and he drove it like he only had his permit. The Bills’ offense became predictable and the team look out of sync because of how the offense performed under him. After a Monday Night Football loss to the Denver Broncos where the Bills found themselves at 5-5, Sean McDermott decided to let go of Dorsey and promote Joe Brady as the interim offensive coordinator.
Under Brady, the Bills’ offense looked more electric because of the “everybody eats” mentality that Brady implemented and it carried the Bills into the playoffs. The Bills were averaging 27 points a game when Brady took over the play calling duties. With his impressive outing late in the 2023 season, Brady was promoted as the full-time offensive coordinator.
Joe Brady is setting himself up for potential head coaching opportunities
In this season alone, Brady has done a lot more with a lot less talent than what he had last season. However, players like Mack Hollins and Khalil Shakir and have shown that names don’t mean anything if the production is there. As it stands, the Bills are currently on an 8-game streak of scoring 30+ points which puts them as the first team to do it since the 2013 Denver Broncos who had Peyton Manning.
In addition, the Bills have only scored under 20 points once this year while they have scored over 40 points in three games. Since Week 8, the Bills have put up 400+ total yards of offense four times. It also helps having Josh Allen who is more than likely going to lock up his first MVP award this season.
However, Brady is the one that is designing the calls and is finding ways to let everyone eat and contribute to the offense. This Bills offense is not focused in on making one player happy. Brady has been all about getting everyone, no matter who they are, involved.
The Bills have been able to effectively run the ball with James Cook, Ray Davis, and Ty Johnson. Buffalo is also spreading the ball out nicely to their receivers. Khalil Shakir leads the Bills with 88 targets (with 71 catches), followed by Dalton Kincaid who has 66 targets. Then you have a good mixture of players like Keon Coleman (38 targets), Mack Hollins (41 targets), Curtis Samuel (31 targets), Amari Cooper (27 targets) and Dawson Knox (28 targets).
Buffalo is spreading the ball around consistently and it shows that Brady is trusting in his guys to give them those looks for Allen to make a play. With this type of production, Bills fans should be prepared for Joe Brady to take on some head coaching interviews.
The biggest goal for any coordinator should be to become a head coach one day. Brady already interviewed last season with the Atlanta Falcons, despite not being the offensive coordinator for a whole season. With the league being such a heavily-favored offensive league, any team that has already fired or could potentially fire their current head coach could potentially look into bringing Brady in for a conversation.
Teams have to notice the work Brady has done with this Bills offense after all of the offseason chatter about how this unit was going to take a step back due to the loss of Gabe Davis and Stefon Diggs. This offense looks better than any of the other offensive units the Bills have had since 2020. The Bills will want to potentially look around for replacements if Brady does indeed leave Buffalo after 2024.